122 POLTGALACE^E. (MILKWORT FAMILY.) 



nearly as long as the seed. — Margin of swamps, Maine to Virginia and south- 

 ward near the coast, and along the Great Lakes. 



9. P. brevifdlia, Nutt. Eather slender, branched above ; leaves scattered 

 on the branches, narrower ; spikes peduncled ; wings lanceolate-ovate, pointless or 

 barely mucronate. — Margin of sandy bogs, Rhode Island ( Olney), New Jersey, and 

 southward. Too near the last. 



* * Spikes slender {about 2" thick), the bracts falling with the flowers, which are 

 small, greenish-white or barely tinged with purple, the crest of the keel larger. 



10. P. verticillita, L. Slender (6'-10' high), much branched; stem- 

 haves all whorled, those of the branches scattered, linear, acute ; spikes peduncled, 

 dense, acute ; wings round, clawed; the 2-lobed caruncle half the length of the 

 seed. — Dry soil : common. 



11. P. ambigua, Nutt. Very slender, loosely branched ; lowest stem-leaves 

 in fours, the rest scattered; spikes long-peduncled, more slender, the flowers often 

 purplish and scattered; wings oval; caruncle shorter; otherwise nearly as in 

 No. 10, — of which it is probably a mere variety. — Dry soil, from New York 

 and Pennsylvania southward. 



§ 4. Perennial, with alternate leaves throughout, and white flowers in a solitary close 

 spike : no subterranean blossoms. 



12. P. S6nega, X. (Seneca Snakeroot.) Stems several from thick 

 and hard knotty rootstocks, simple (6' -12' high) ; leaves lanceolate or oblong- 

 lanceolate, with rough margins ; flowers almost sessile ; wings round-obovate, 

 concave ; crest short ; caruncle nearly as long as the seed. — Rocky soil, W. 

 New England to Wisconsin and southward. May, June. 



Var. latifdlia, Torr. & Gray. Taller, sometimes branched ; leaves ovate 

 or ovate-lanceolate, 2' - 4' long, tapering to each end. — Kentucky, Short. 



§ 5. Biennials and perennials, with showy, rose-purple, conspicuously crested flowers ; 

 also bearing colorless and inconspicuous more fertile ones, with imperfect corollas, 

 fertilized in the bud, on subterranean branches. 



13. P. pol^gama, Walt. Stems numerous from the ii'enniai root, mostly 

 simple, ascending, very leafy (6' to 9' high) ; leaves oblanceolate or oblong, alternate ; 

 terminal raceme many-flowered, the broadly obovate wings longer than the keel ; 

 stamens 8 ; radical flowers racemed on short runners beneath the ground ; lobes 

 of the caruncle 2, scale-like, shorter than the seed. — Dry sandy soil ; common 

 eastward. July. 



14. P. paucif61ia, WiUd. Pcrcnni'aZ; flowering stems short {3' -4' high), 

 rising from long and slender prostrate or subterranean shoots, which also bear 

 concealed fertile flowers ; lower leaves small and scale-like, scattered : the upper 

 leaves ovate, petioled, crowded at the summit of the stem ; flowers 1-3, large, pe- 

 duncled ; wings obovate, rather shorter than the conspicuously fringe-crested 

 keel ; stamens 6 ; caruncle of 2 or 3 awl-shaped lobes longer than the seed. — 

 Woods, in light soil, especially northward, extending southward along the Al- 

 leghanies. May. — A delicate plant, with large and very handsome flowers, 9" 

 long, rose-purple, or rarely pure white. Sometimes called Flowering Winter- 

 green, but more appropriately Feinged Poltgala. 



